316 



NATURE 



\Jan. 29, 1880 



sensibility attached to their strings. His conclusion was that, 

 with reference to the work done, a given surface would the more 

 easily support a fixed weight in proportion as the surface pre- 

 sented its shorter dimension in the direction of the wind, and 

 its longer dimension perpendicularly to that direction. — M. A. 

 De Candolle announces the publication of the last part of the 

 fourth volume of M. B oi-sier's " Flora Orientalis," completing 

 the description of Dicotyledons. 



July 8. MM. Micheli gives an ab-tract of his monographic 



investigations of the families Alismacex, Buromaceae, and 

 ]unca"inea3. — M. E. Ador has studied with MM. Friedel and 

 "Crafts' the action of chloride of methyl on benzine, in presence 

 of chloride of aluminium. — M. Forel has detected in the oscilla- 

 lations of the surface of Lake Geneva a movement which he 

 terms "seiches dicrotes," consisting in a redoubling of the 

 oscillation in two series or oscillations which mutually interiere, 

 being of unequal duration.— Prof. Colladon ob-erved an upward 

 current of air round the Pissevache Waterfall, which is sur- 

 rounded by a layer from 30 to 40 cm. in thickness, filled v. ith 

 very small drops of water. This phenomenon, due to tLe air- 

 suction of the fall, might serve to explain the atmospheric 

 currents accompanying the formation of hail. 



August 7. — Prof. Schiff relates his researches on the action 

 exercised upon hysterical subjects by the contact of metals and 

 electric currents. — M. R. Pictet saw on Mount Jura, during a storm 

 that broke forth on ihe 5th, a bluish light produced over a 

 forest, resembling St. Elmo's fire. It disappeared and reap- 

 peared three times, under the influence of successive violent 

 thunder-claps. 



September 4. — M. Soret believes the "seiches dicrotes" ob- 

 served by M. Forel can be explained by the superposition of 

 two oscillations, one " uninodal," lasting seventy-two minuie-, 

 the other " binodal," lasting a little less than half that 

 time. 



October 2.— Dr. Marcet shows his instruments for collecting 

 and analysing the air emitted from the lungs. — M C. de Can- 

 dolle has ascertained the prolonged action of low temperatures 

 on the germinative power of various kinds of grain. 



November 6. — MM. L. Soret and Rilliet have investigated the 

 absorption of the ultra-violet rays of the spectrum by certain 

 organic substances — the azotates of ethyl, isobutyle, and amyl, 

 ammonia, &c. — M. R. Pictet presents a barometer intended to 

 measure vapour tensions. It is composed of a vertical glass 

 tube, wide at the top and very narrow towards the bottom, which 

 bends at a right angle to be prolonged into a long horizontal 

 tube. The lower level of the mercury is therefore constant, and 

 as its volume does not vary, the variations of the higher level 

 in the large tube are reproduced on a much enlarged scale in the 

 narrow horizontal tube from which the readings are taken. — 

 From a comparison of a series of eighty years' meteorological 

 observations made at Geneva, Prof. Wartman has observed that 

 the odds are remarkable in favour of August 15 being a stormy 

 day. — -Prof. Brun shows a fragment of fulgurite found on 

 Mount Jura in chalky soil, a circumstance of very rare occur- 

 rence. Its surface is covered with small vitrefied globules which 

 can only be explained by the fusion of the chalky matter under 

 the influence of the lightning. 



Paris 

 Academy of Sciences, January 19. — M. Edm. Becquerel in 

 the chair. — M. Daubree presented the fifth volume of his 

 "Traite de Mechanique." — The following papers were read: — 

 On some applications of elliptic functions, by M. Hermite. — On 

 the heat of formation of hydrate of chloral, by M. Berlhelot. 

 He offers experimental proof that gaseous chloral and water- 

 vapour combine together with liberation of heat, and without 

 change of state. The two are introduced from the boiling 

 liquids into a small glass globe (wiih thermometer and drawing- 

 off tube), one through a strai ht, the other (chloral vapour) 

 through a spiral tube, and these parts are inclosed in a stoppered 

 piece of glass tube, through which a steam current from the 

 same source as the other circulates, and which also hold- a 

 thermometer. Throughout the experiment, after the vapours 

 met, the thermometer in the globe showed a higher temperature 

 than that of the inclosure, and the temperature was about i° 

 above that of boiling water, during twenty-five minutes. Negative 

 results may be got, if the relative proportions be not regulated. 

 — Note on hydrate of chloral, by M. Wurtz. With similar 

 conditions of experiment, and the chloral previously boiled to 

 expel hydrochloric acid, he hr.d not found the least rise of tempera- 



ture. — Note on the utility of concentric curved plates to alternately 

 charge siphons by means of an oscillating liquid c dumn, by 

 M. De Caligny. — Simplification of American audiphone appa- 

 ratus for the deaf and dumb, by M Colladon. A simple disk 

 of a particular kind of pasteboard, which is compact, homoge- 

 neous, elastic, and tenacious, is substituted for the hardened 

 canutch"uc, no cords being required to fix the tension. The 

 part applied to the teeth is coated with a substance to resist 

 moisture. Musical snunds, and words uttered near, were under- 

 stood by deaf mutes who tried the instrument. — The General 

 Inspector of Navigation communicated figures regarding the 

 daily height of the Seine in 1879, at the Pont Royal and the 

 Pout de la Tournelle. The hi«hest water at the former was 

 621 m. oil January 9, the lowest P67 in. on October 10, 15, 

 and 17 ; the mean, 2'72 m. — A letter was read, suggesting to 

 saw into pieces the bank of ice on the Loire, near Sann.ur. 

 Admiral Paris gave details of an attempt made in Russia in 1855 

 to liberate ships from ice by means of saws. He thought the 

 inetbud very useful "here there is a current to carry off the ice ; 

 the ice being sawn in long strips across the cunent, which break 

 up en rou e. — On a class of linear differential equations, by 

 M. Picard. — Kxperimental and clinical researches on ances- 

 thesia produced by lesions of the cerebral convolutions, by M. 

 Tripier. Sensibility may be more or less diminished by Usi ns 

 of the frontoparietal region, which has been thought only a 

 motor zone. — On the plants which serve as base for various 

 curares, by M. Planchon. Four distinct regions are centres of 

 preparation for curare, and for each a principal plant can be 

 indicated. (The regions are English and Upper French Guana, 

 that of the Upper Amazon, and that of the Rio Negro.) — On 

 the linear and lacunar confluents of the connective tissue of the 

 cornea, by M. Renaut. — On the parturition of the common 

 porp.i e (Phocsna communis), by M. Jourdain. — Influence of 

 climates on the maturation of corn, by M. Balland. This 

 relate* to observations at Orleansville, in Algeria. The mean 

 monthly temperatures in l877-7S-79are given ; they ramje from 

 7° - 8 to 32°"6. It is calculated that wheat, to reach its full evo- 

 lution, must have received 249s" of heat in 1S77-78, and 2432° 

 in 1878-79, which is near the number (2365°) obtained by M. 

 Herve Mangon for Normandy ; but the time required at Or- 

 lean ville was 180 days, as again-t 266 in the other case. — 

 Remarks on the use of Smithson's pile for detection of mercury, 

 especially in mineral waters, by M. Lefort. Arsenic may, with 

 it, be confounded with mercury. The easy reduction of oxy- 

 genated acids of arsenic by metals, under influence of the weakest 

 electric current, is made evident. — Light, cover, and humus, 

 studied in their influence on the vegetation of trees in forests, by 

 M. Gurnaud. 



CONTENTS Pagb 



The Fundamental Definitions and Propositions of Geometry, 

 with Esphciai. Reference 10 this Syllabus of the Association 

 for the Impkovbme.sT of Geometrical Teaching. By Prof. 



Simon Mewcomb . 293 



The Science of Statesmanship 293 



Nicholson's Pai ^ontology 297 



Sizing and Mildew in Cot ion Goods 298 



The Intra-Mercurial Planet Question.— Prof. Lewis Swift. . . 299 



The transverse Propagation uf Light— W. M. Hicks .... 301 



Mountain Ranges — H. B. Mbdlicott 301 



Ice Filaments.— R. Meldola ; Rev. O. Fisher; Capt. II. King . 302 



The Kangaroo. — Alfked iVIokkis 302 



Chinese Geese —L- wis Wright 3°* 



The Molecular Velocity of Gases.— L. HajniS 302 



Suicide of the Scorpion. — F. Gillman 302 



Melon— J. S. Thomson 303 



On Hallkv's Mount 3°3 



The U.S. Weather Maps 304 



Diffusion of Copper in the Animal Kingdom. ByT. H. Norton 303 



No IE- 3°5 



Our Astronomical Column:— 



Periodical Variation in the Brightness of Nebula: 307 



Total Solar Eclipses in the next Decade 308 



Biological Notes: — 



Bees Eating Entrapped Moths 3°>> 



New Mosasauroid Reptiles 3°» 



New England Isopods 3°9 



The Fossil Horses of Constantine 309 



Physical Notes 3°9 



Giuju.ai-h an NnTBi 3'° 



The Eff-cts of Uninterrupted Sunlight on Plants .... 311 



Mythologic Philo-ophy. By Prof. J. W. Powell 312 



U.-tVKrt-l TV ^Nl) EUUCAI lONAL InTULLIUCNCK 314 



Scientific Sekials 3'4 



Societiks and Academies o'4 



